Sometimes we go to nature

Sometimes nature comes to us. This critter was coiled in the middle of my office floor. You can't tell from the photo, but this one was only about 18 inches long and as thick as my finger. I hope it has returned to the savannah.

The eastern milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) is a of the group of constrictors called "king snakes." King snakes get their name because they often kill and eat other species of snakes, including venomous species such as rattlesnakes. The eastern milk snake grows to a length of about three feet.

There is a dietary story behind the common name. Besides its occasional taste for reptilian prey — as well as frogs, fish, birds, and eggs — the milk snake avidly hunts small mammals such as mice and voles. After European settlement, milk snakes found shelter in barns and other farm buildings. Humans imagined that these creatures came to milk the cows, hence the name "milk" snake. Most local herpetologists note a correlation between its scattered populations and remnant oak savanna groves, especially those on gravelly, morainal ridges. These open woodlots are transitional ecosystems lying between the open grasslands and the more closed-canopy forest. Milk snakes are rarely found on wet soils and seem to prefer the gravelly or rocky soil of these low but dry hills. They probably also use the mix of shade and sun found in savannas to regulate body temperature.